Jack Reed: “the Biden amendment is very straightforward. It says we will pay for the $87 billion by repealing the tax advantages for…”

“the Biden amendment is very straightforward. It says we will pay for the $87 billion by repealing the tax advantages for those who have the upper 1 percent in income in the United States. In my view, this is not an issue of taxes or payments; this is a simple issue of responsibility. It is irresponsible for us to borrow money from Social Security, borrow money from Medicare, borrow money from education spending, borrow money from the Veterans' Administration to give to the Iraqi people. We can, in fact, pay for it. We can pay for it by supporting the Biden amendment. My colleague from Maryland spoke about the sacrifice of these soldiers, sailors, airmen, airwomen, and marines who are over in Iraq. Just ask yourself: What happens 5 years from now when those young Americans go to the Veterans' Administration and they are told they cannot be accommodated because we do not have enough money, that we borrowed so much money that our economy is in disarray, and that our programs that support American people have been devastated? We have a situation in which our deficits are growing out of proportion, the national debt is rising. In January of 2001, the CBO estimated that the national debt in 2008 would be $36 billion. In fact, the President at that time was talking about paying off all of our debt, and now, in August of 2003, CBO projects a debt of $6.2 trillion in 2008. Deficits are expanding dramatically. Again and again they go up and up and up.…”